The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated Plymouth City Council as good, in how well they are meeting their responsibilities to ensure people have access to adult social care and support under the Care Act (2014).
CQC has a new duty under the Act to assess how local authorities work with their communities and partners to meet their responsibilities. This includes promoting the wellbeing and independence of working age disabled adults, older people, and their unpaid carers to reduce their need for formal support where appropriate. Where support is needed it should provide people with choice and control of how their care needs are met.
CQC looked at nine areas spread across four themes to assess how well the authority is meeting their responsibilities in order to create their good rating. CQC has given each of these nine areas a score out of four with one being the evidence shows significant shortfalls, and four showing an exceptional standard.
1. assessing people’s needs: 2
2. supporting people to lead healthier lives: 3
3. equity in experience and outcomes: 4
4. care provision, integration and continuity of care: 2
5. partnership and communities: 3
6. safe pathways, systems and transitions: 2
7. safeguarding: 2
8. governance, management and sustainability: 3
9. learning, improvement and innovation: 3
Chris Badger, CQC's Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care, said:
"Plymouth City Council has demonstrated a strong commitment to collaborative working and continuous improvement. This assessment reflects both genuine achievements and areas where the authority must do more to ensure people receive timely, consistent support when they need it most.
"The authority has an impressive culture of working with partners. Staff told us their joined-up teams are supportive and work well together to understand and reduce barriers to care and support and address inequalities. People who use service, and their families, also have a real say in how things are run, from helping choose which organisations should deliver care, to shaping future plans for unpaid carers. The Wellbeing Hubs have been especially successful, offering friendly places where people can get advice, meet others, and receive health support all in one location.
“However, significant challenges remain, we saw advocacy support wasn’t always offered when required. The authority has begun to make progress in reducing backlogs. We saw actions they were taking including creating an improvement plan focused on key priorities and introducing a digital financial assessment tool to speed up processes.”
“Overall, Plymouth City Council know what work they need to do to implement improvements and should be pleased with the positive areas identified in this report. The challenge now is to ensure the improvements are carried out, sustained, and embedded across all service areas so that every person in Plymouth receives equal and timely support. We look forward to returning to see how their plans mature.”
The assessment team found:
- Staff had effective systems to protect people from abuse and neglect, with the correct knowledge and skills to carry out their work.
- The authority worked in an integrated way with 70% of people discharged from hospital using a home first approach.
- People could easily access equipment and minor home adaptations to maintain their independence in their own homes.
- Community wellbeing hubs were concentrated in more deprived areas, offering facilities and programmes to connect communities together.
- An online directory provided help, advice and information about accessing services for non-eligible care needs.
However:
- Reviews no longer took place consistently and tended to be reactive, with partners not always aware of them taking place despite being involved in the care.
- Pathways and processes did not always ensure that staff planned and coordinated people’s support across different agencies and services. Some partners said staff closed cases too soon, which caused people to wait to be seen again.
- Some providers felt there was less preventative work taking place around safeguarding and were not always sure where to go for support if people did not meet thresholds, especially where people had mental capacity to make their own decisions.